Gourmand Garners Good Karma Getting Gala Grabbag Goodies
Posted by CMH Gourmand on May 2, 2009
What a great day. The sun is out, the weather is good and all is right in my world. I had the honor to judge tacos and salsas at the North Market Cinco D’Ohio Festival (Thanks Mary and David). I’ll write more about that later. And now I am getting ready to go to the Slow Food Goes Cuban – Cubano Pig Roast in Granville. I’ll write about that later for the Slow Food Blog (as a pinch writer for the Hungry Woolf).
So what could make that day better? A giant serving of good Karma. I am putting together a Gourmand Grabbag – “24 Hours of Gourmand” for The North Market Apron Gala on May 16th. I’ll write more about that later. For the past week I have been out and about recreating a typical day in my life by collecting a few of my favorite food things.
I bought a Greener Grocer gift Certificate at the North Market as I was leaving. While there I met Kate who will be helping with a Slow Food Event planned for the Athens area. I picked up a free copy of Cook’s Illustrated that was available at the counter.
My second stop was Pistacia Vera. I chatted with Anne at the counter and she offered to make her own donation to the Grab Bag with a Pistacia Vera Gift certificate. She packaged it perfectly with box, ribbon and menu. While I was waiting by the register, Spencer spotted me and gave a me a quick tour of the kitchen. It is a wonderful workspace with natural light and a warmth that does not come exclusively from the baked goodies. Apart from a great selection of baked goods what stands out at Pistacia Vera are the personal touches by all of the staff (see my first post about Pistacia back on October 1st, 2006). While I lingered around Anne spoke with customers as she helped them. She knows many by name. You can’t get service like that at many places nor can you have that type of access to the people that craft your food. Awesome.
My next stop was Yeah Me Too Coffee (see my post from January 1st, 2008). I picked up a pound of their Porcupine Blend for the grab bag. If you know the Yeah Me Too coffee codes it is a blend of FLO/SUM/BZ/GT. Porcupine might seem an odd name for a coffee but not when you know the background of the shop. The owners are musicians first and coffee roasters second. Porcupine is the name of a special album (as in LP) by Tim Easton. As as fate would have it Tim Easton and Megan Palmer were there playing impromtu tunes – two voices, a guitar and a fiddle. I was one of seven people with the pleasure of listening to an incredibly intimate performance from two great local music makers. Awesome.
While writing this I ate two Pistacia cookies and listened to some songs from Megan’s website. Awesome.
CMH Gourmand - Eating in Columbus & Ohio 
MarketMary said
Can’t wait to see the Gourmand grab bag!